An argument that society and families, and you, will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly.
I want to die when I am bored, unable to think in the way I want to think, and unable to do things that I want to do. The actual number age has much less to do with my happiness and capabilities. I know crazy awesome 80 year olds who are still kicking life's ass. I also know crazy "old" 60 year olds who have spent too much time in the sun with a bottle of liquor.
A psychologist told me recently (a personal friend, not a paid professional, not that there's anything wrong with that) that boredom is an expression of anxiety. I never thought about that before, but I think it makes sense. There's so much to do in the world that it makes one wonder why boredom exists. If it is just that we are expressing anxiety about something by being paralyzed by indecisiveness, then I think the picture becomes more clear.I want to die when I am bored, unable to think in the way I want to think, and unable to do things that I want to do.
I've heard this argument before, but it always seemed to me to be kinda misleading. Like, obviously there's a bunch of stuff to do in the world, but when you look at the number of things that it's possible for one to do in a particular moment, with limited financial resources, limited time, and all sorts of other constraints, I think it's totally possible to be bored in the classical sense -- simply because there's nothing to do. On the other hand, boredom can also be an expression of dissatisfaction, i.e. when one is in the middle of doing something unpleasant (or "boring") but "has to" (quotation marks indicate radical freedom, "has to" here really means something closer to "feels obligated to") keep doing said thing. At that point one can definitely become bored with the task and wish to be able to do something else. And I guess that's sort of the same point: I think boredom arises when the number of things one can do is constrained past a certain threshold. So I think it's also misleading to construe all boredom as related to indecision.There's so much to do in the world that it makes one wonder why boredom exists.
That's really interesting. I can't remember the last time I was genuinely bored. I remember being bored as a kid and whining at my mother. There may have been a couple Saturdays in high school? I worked all weekend but maybe after work when I was exhausted from work and none of my friends were doing anything / doing anything I wanted to do? I can't remember. Today, especially since there's so much on our phones, I'm not even bored waiting at the doctors office. It's like "sweet! I got a good 20 minutes where I can nothing but read hubski!" I can't even imagine a circumstance where I would be so caught up on everything I need to do AND want to do that I would end up bored.
I support the view in this article. I would push my personal age back to 80, based on my family history and current medical practices. If I live beyond that age there is a good chance I'll be a ghost of myself or fading, and I've seen how caring for a slowly declining parent can be very taxing on a family.
My grandfather broke his hip at 76. He was replacing his own composition roof on the house he built by hand in his 50s and he fell off. He was also drunk. My grandfather broke his hip again at 92. He was replacing his own composition roof again and he fell off. He blew a .16. When he was 80 he planted an English walnut tree and stated publicly that as soon as he got walnuts out of it, he could die. Then he got walnuts at 88 and decided he'd live to 100. He damn near made it. I think he finally got sick of his wife, whom he married at 19. My uncle died on a Tuesday, he died on a Wednesday. My grandmother died that Thursday. He made it to 97. My other grandfather killed himself with a knife and a fork. He ate like shit, watched 12 hours of TV a day and never exercised from early retirement at 55. Even still it took him to 80. His brother made it to 102. His mother made it to 101. (His wife got sick of his shit and as soon as the Alzheimer's started she overdosed on nitroglycerin at 72) So I support the view in this article, too. But I also know it sure as fuck ain't for me. I've got the example of the man who put hollandaise sauce on everything and died a piece at a time, a burden on his family. But I've got the example of the other side who were damn near Clan McCloud and fuckin' A, my grandfather smoked a pack a day from childhood through the '70s and had a damn fine time to 97. Polished off the work day with pork rinds and three shots of Old QT and made it to 97. I'm 40 years old in a few weeks. That's fuckin' old. But I'm kicking ass and taking names. I ran 3 9 minute miles in a row four hours ago and weigh less right now than I did when I was 27. I have more hair than anyone else in my family and it's nearly all brown. 75? Fuck that. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
This sounds so badass. Like something out of a McCarthy novel.When he was 80 he planted an English walnut tree and stated publicly that as soon as he got walnuts out of it, he could die.
It's even better with the Okie accent. My grandparents were blown out of Bastrop County Texas by the Dust Bowl; then they moved to an even shittier corner of the world. My grandfather cleared his throat a lot, whistled tunelessly between his teeth and had a hard time with words that end in -ire. "Go put your boots to warm up by the FAAAAAHHHHHHHHR." "If'n we're gonna make that fence elecric we'll need some WAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHR." "The bologna's good. It's made by Oscar MAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHR." So when he said "he could die" It was actually more like. "Yeh. Mhh huh. Soon as that thing makes some walnuts I reckon I can dAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH." Think I still have some walnuts from the first crop somewhere.
After watching Alzheimer's eat my grandfather alive I have to agree it's far better to burn out than fade away. I'll eat a bullet before I spend my last days withering away in some cold hospital bed.If I live beyond that age there is a good chance I'll be a ghost of myself or fading
I think the graph is explaining how the brain ages and how this maturity affects productivity. As you approach and pass 26 the average brain is fully grown(?) and you're neurons are firing on all cylinders. As you approach 40 your brain is still firing just fine, but with the added benefit of learned behaviors and memories. You are at the peak of your creative potential. Finally as you age into your 60s you are "squeezing the creativity out of the neural networks established over your initial career and are not likely to develop enough strong new brain connections to generate as many innovative ideas." That's the way I understood it at least. You've got to seize the moment while you can.As we age, we forge a very extensive network of connections established through a lifetime of experiences, thoughts, feelings, actions, and memories. We are subject to who we have been. It is difficult, if not impossible, to generate new, creative thoughts, because we don’t develop a new set of neural connections that can supersede the existing network.
As a young person, I definitely feel this. There's so much that older people do that I could never manage, simply because I don't have that many experiences. It always weirds me out a little bit when an adult talks for like an hour just riffing on one subject, mostly unprepared, until I remind myself that they've had a lot more time than I have to acquire a.) experiences that make for entertaining anecdotes and b.) knowledge to support whatever point they're making.